Arrived

Wow. It’s been a really super long time since I posted last, and so much has happened! This will probably be the first in a series of posts, because there is just way too much to share all at once.

Anyway, I’m safe and sound here in Béré. The flight from Hamburg to Paris went smoothly, with the only hiccup being an additional €100 fee to check a second bag with Air France. It specifically said on their website that a second bag was free for flights to Chad, but the lady at the baggage check-in wouldn’t budge.

The N’djamena airport was completely different than what I expected. The logistical precision and coordination of typical international airports hasn’t quite made its way to Chad. But hey, at least there was one dude screening for Ebola. After exiting the plane we all crammed into a small room to complete our travel documents. The scene was pretty wild; people pushing, yelling, and climbing over tables, all accompanied by copious amounts of grasshoppers. I stood in line for awhile waiting to get my passport checked and then proceeded to baggage claim, which is the only other room in the airport. I doubted if my bags would ever show up, and if they did, I was sure that someone would just grab them and run. But thankfully none of that happened, and all my luggage arrived safely.

The next step was to get through “security”. This consisted of a couple teenagers operating a scanning machine and a woman directing traffic while standing on a baggage carousel. The teenagers pulled my bag full of electronics off of the conveyor belt and motioned me aside for a special check. But then they got bored waiting for the previous person to finish, so they just let me through. Then another guy made me open my bag on the other side of the scanner. He was very suspicious and called about 5 other people over to check things out. I basically just said “L’hôpital Adventiste de Béré" and they let me go.

By the time I stepped onto the street outside the front entrance, I was pretty overwhelmed. The sight of Zach Gately (another volunteer) waiting to meet me was incredibly relieving. We hopped in a taxi and traveled to the outskirts of N’djamena where we spent the night at a Lutheran Mission.

Our taxi driver met us the next morning and took us around the city so that I could register at the police station, exchange money at the bank, do some shopping (N’djamena has way more options than Béré), and catch the next bus. At night the city is like a ghost town, but during the day it is a madhouse. It’s basically a huge, crowded, dirty marketplace. EVERYONE has something to sell, especially to white people like me. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to share because people will take your camera if they see you taking pictures.

After waiting at the bus station for 2 hours, we began what would be a 10-hour ride to Béré, featuring military checkpoints, cow crossings, flat tires, too many stops, and not enough water. The stops at each village made me feel like an animal at the zoo; hordes of people staring and pointing at the strange creature behind the glass that is obviously a long way from home.

We rumbled into Béré around 10pm that night. The bumpy ride left me pretty thrashed, and I was sure that the fragile electronics in my bags would be in worse shape after spending the trip strapped to the roof. I had spent the majority of the trip praying that everything would survive, and somehow it did. Actually, I knew how it survived; only God. Seeing everything in one piece was a small reminder than this whole thing is going to be alright, and that I am where I should be.

And so I spent the first night in my hut in total peace, with the assurance that someone in Chad has a plan.

Stay tuned to hear about my new family!